I do a fair amount of travelling, both for work and for pleasure. This year I did personal day trips to Venice, Madrid and Copenhagen. However I had not travelled abroad for work since November 2025. In September I was attending a conference and meeting at Luleå in Sweden. I have never visited Sweden before, so was looking forward to going. Luleå is also the furthest north I have been, it is just 68 miles south of the Arctic Circle. My previous furtherest most northern place was Helsinki.
The journey took some planning, in the end it was more efficient to travel from London Heathrow, have a layover in Stockholm and then fly up to Luleå. It is about the same size as Weston-super-Mare in terms of geography and population.
Luleå is on the coastline of the Gulf of Bothnia and has lovely views across the water. The city is surrounded by vast forestland.
As with most work trips, I didn’t have a huge amount of time for exploring or visiting, but I did get a chance to explore the city centre and the shoreline.